Dr. Mario World will be Nintendo’s latest game to hit mobile devices when it launches on July 10, which is just a few weeks away.
Nintendo announced the release date of its upcoming game on Twitter, following from what was presumably a successful closed beta for Mario Kart Tour that was completed back in the beginning of June.
Dr. Mario for those who never had the chance to play it back on the original NES and SNES consoles was a puzzle game that is very much like the many, many match3 games you can find on the Play Store these days.
The goal is to match three of the same color object. For example you’ll want to match blue capsules with blue viruses and you’ll be able to clear them off of the game board. There are also some Tetris-like elements like tapping the capsules so you can rotate them to fit between immovable objects on the board such as the blocks.
You only have so many capsules to work with on each stage and you’ll need to clear out all of the viruses before you run out of capsules to match up with the same colored viruses, so it shouldn’t feel too different from other match3 type games you have already played.
Much like other non-traditional Mario games you can play as other characters from the Mario universe such as Dr. Bowser, Dr. Peach, Dr. Toad, Dr. Luigi and others. Each Dr. has their own unique skill too so there are benefits to choosing one over the other.
There are even assistants that you can enlist the help of which add other skills on top of the one from the doctor you’re using, potentially giving you an edge on stages which you might find particularly difficult.
Dr. Mario World is a free game and it’s available for pre-registration on the Play Store already if you want to be notified the moment it goes live on release day. Though it is free, expect some form of micro transactions for things like in-game special currency that will no doubt be usable to speed up timers or buy new characters, though it will likely be possible to unlock most or all things in the game as well.
Nintendo describes the game as “free to start” so it’s possible that additional worlds or stages will be unlockable with a one-time optional in-game purchase similar to with Super Mario Run. With that said, there are “hundreds” of stages across multiple worlds that players will be able to go through, so a one-time purchase to expand the game might not be such a bad idea if you end up enjoying this one.
Though the core of the game’s content will be single player there are some multiplayer aspects that have been built into it. You can play against friends or other players from around the world online through the versus mode. With this mode you’ll be put head to head against other players to see who can clear the board the fastest.
Overall Dr. Mario World appears to be what you can generally expect from Nintendo, which is a quality game that is just plain fun and brings back some nostalgia.